MATACAWALEVU ISLAND, BAY OF PLENTY
Monday – FIJI’S FINEST COOKING!!
This morning we headed over the hill to the family’s farm, one of the brothers now runs it- Tuki.
Tuki has transformed a traditional cassava (root crop) farm into a full fruit & vegetable farm – he’s even testing with raspberries…. They were a little shrivelled to look like raspberries!!After our tour of the farm we headed back to the house where we were going to learn how to make a traditional Fijian desert….yum… or so I thought!
They used things from the garden – so we got papaya fruit and cassava and coconuts.
Their Kitchen!!The papaya was boiled down to a jam like texture; the cassava was washed and soaked then shaved finely to make a thick paste (remember cassava is kinda like potato) then we mixed the two together and formed a gloupy paste like sauce…. This is where I thought they would add flour or a cake like mixture and it would be the filling but no…. that was it! Well no not exactly… we got a go at cracking open the coconuts and shaving out the inside and then the coconut shavings were heated ‘cooked’ by a large hot stone. Once ‘cooked’ she squeezed the coconut milk on top of the fruit and cassava paste and served it up!!
The sight of it makes me sick!!At first it tasted ok, but after a few mouthfuls I started to get the sweats…. I couldn’t eat anymore… and Rob was struggling too so I couldn’t pass it off to him! I couldn’t take it any more; it was quite sickening so I just politely said I’ll wait til after my lunch!!! I legged up the hill to our room where I could feel my tongue swelling… (Either I was allergic to coconut or I ran too fast, I think I’m slightly allergic!) We both felt a little dodgy after lunch but we just pushed it to one side and headed of on another Fijian experience…Fishing!
Dan the owner of Bay of Plenty took us out on his boat, Rob already has his hand line and I got a wee red one! We went out near Turtle Island, that’s the celebrity island where it coast almost €1000 a night. We put down the anchor not far from their beach, then we saw a couple rushing along the sand, the woman put a towel around her head for cover (we immediately thought it was a celebrity, but who) the next thing that happened was pretty weird… she stripped off completely… we still couldn’t see her face covered by the towel but we could certainly see her white bum!!! Ha ha… she prob thought we were paparazzi coming to get a pic of her ass…. Ha ha!Anyway back to our jam packed day! So we were out fishing, at this stage Dan and Rob had caught about 7 fish between them. The next thing I feel is a good tug… oooh I caught something… I was so super excited, really giddy and I remember Rob saying that it was such a buzz catching a fish, I had to agree!! Then as I pulled it up really hard a huge piece of coral lands in the boat… how embarrassing!!!! Ahh! I had caught a rock!!
My Rock fish!The two guys broke their sides laughing, I had to laugh too, you should have seen how excited I was! Eventually their laughter subsided and we moved on another location (for my benefit) The next spot was much better, I caught the first of many fish there (but I was slow to let on that I had a fish on my hook on til I could see it!) When I say first of many fish… I mean the guys went on the catch about 15 more fish! At the end of the day the score was Dan 15, Rob 6 and Danielle 1 (and a rock). We got a big feed of fish that night, before Dan sat us down with Mike and Ellen (the cute young Canadian couple, only 18 and 19!) and taught us some basic Fijian phrases!!
Now repeat after me!!....It was actually great to learn something other then ‘Bula’! We went to bed feeling a bit queasy after the desert earlier that day and the boat ride combined… fun night!
Day 97- 10/11/09
MATACAWALEVU ISLAND, BAY OF PLENTY (DAYTO OUR TOUR GUIDE)
Tuesday
Getting use to all the creepy crawlies is still an issue over here, as one of the Lizards feel on my (Rob) back last night as I was asleep!! Waking straight up, finding it in my bed! I wasn’t the better of it! We decided to walk the mountain at the back of our resort, which is a great look out point to view all the islands! Obviously the dog, Dayto led the way. If the track broke into 2, we just followed Dayto hoping he would know the way!
Half way up this was being more of a climb then a walk, and having flip flops on, with one of them broken made it even harder! We came across big spiders, ducking under there web hoping it wouldn’t fall on your back! 
Dayto was still leading the way until he took a short break, not even squatting placing his bum on a long piece of straw that was in perfect height to his bum and having a shit!!! The smell was atrocious! So we marked it and made sure not to walk into it on our way back! When reaching the top, the views were astonishing, again the colours in the water were so strong, plus being able to see the perfect outline of the islands were amazing. When trying to take a picture, Dayto wouldn’t get out of the way, so trying to push his head out of the frame while taking a picture, tells a good story! 
Coming down wasn’t so easy, slipping on our bum every 2 minutes. But we did manage not to brush our knee of the shit on our way down!! If it wasn’t for Dayto, we defiantly would have been lost. He even showed us a few shortcuts on the way down!!
After the walk I decided to go night fishing from 6pm to 10pm hoping to catch big fish but only managing to pull in a 6inch snapper! I’ll never do night fishing again.Day 98- 11/11/09
MATACAWALEVU ISLAND, BAY OF PLENTY – LONG BEACH
Wednesday – LOT’S OF BOUNTY!!
Rob spent the morning trying to spear fish a crab, but there is a knack to it! So he didn’t catch the big crap… big cash if you do!! I was pretty tired after last night so I lazed in the hammock; only to be woken abruptly by Dan… he shook the hammock and then gave it a good swing… just for kicks you know! Well this wasn’t the best thing to do… I got into quite a strop being woken like that, ha ha!! Oops! He eventually went off to play with Rob and I was left to dream again. I was later woken the same way by Rob but I can’t stay mad at him so I woke up in a better mood!! Then we got a little boat over to the other side of the island to a resort called Long Beach… called so because of its long beach... Funny that!
Had a good night in our nice private room just over looking the beach… we fully enjoyed ourselves and also enjoyed the Bounty Rum!! It’s growing on me; well it is the only booze on the islands!
Day 99- 12/11/09
MATACAWALEVU ISLAND – NAVITI ISLAND (BEARDED LADY)
Thursday
Waking up with the taste of rum in my mouth, saying I’m never drinking again! We lazed around for the day waiting for the boat that came at 2pm to bring us to the next island. We decided to go on boring medicine walk, I knew as soon as the guide slow blinked and talking slow it was going to be very depressing plus with a hang over! Telling us that he never had to go to the dentist or hospital because he used all the island natural medicines! Funny thing was he was only around 4 foot, so I think he made the wrong decision!! The boat finally came, when hopping onto the boat we weren’t checked for our tickets. Us not having any, sat there quietly hoping to get a free boat journey, in which we did!!! Stepping off the boat with an extra €50 in our pocket was a good feeling!! If they don’t ask, don’t pay!!! We were heading to White Sandy Beach Resort, Greeted again with the same Fijian singing, sort of felt like ground hog day but still a great sight!
Again hugging us and shaking our hands, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, a bearded lady!!!!! Haha I had to hold it in. introducing herself to me I could only look at her curly beard and those fine sideburns!! I felt I stepped into a circus! Not making eye contact with Danielle helped me hold in my laughs. We walked along the white sandy beach before heading to dinner. After a quick meal, the bearded lady came out and explained what entertainment we were going to have tonight. We sat through 5 Fijian dances. After that we all played musical statues, in which Danielle came second!! She really wanted to win!!Day 100- 13/11/09
NAVITI ISLAND – WHITE SANDY
Friday
Rob went fishing on a kayak, but he had to use wee crabs as bait which didn’t really work so no luck for him today!
I spent the day relaxing into Fiji-Time (something that you get way to used to here, I’m sleeping more then I am awake!!) another couple arrived today, Angelina and Marco. She’s a beautiful young greek-aussie girl with her much older rougher looking Italian boyfriend, they are really nice and Marco is pretty funny because he can’t understand Shelly from England, she talks too fast for him! Shelly is super chatty and you can’t really get a word in edge ways with her, but she’s funny too and I have her to thank for getting me started on the Twilight books. She swapped it with Rob for his Ewan McGregor book, pretty bad swap for her tho! I have seen the movie ‘Twilight’ but I may as well read the book, I’m running out!
Our outdoor shower!!That night was a Fijian Themed night. We had a fancy dinner set up, with Lovo (pronounced lobo) food cooked in an oven in the ground ‘pit oven’. So we had fish and chicken, both covered in coconut milk… euww! And plenty of seaweed and sea grapes (more sea weed but shaped like a bunch of little grapes) and cassava. I tried everything but mainly ate the cassava and ketchup…. Dying to have western food! (god that’s bad) also dying for chocolate, haven’t had any since we left main land… that’s pretty good for me! But I made a pact that I would wait til the last day home on the boat to buy a magnum choc and caramel!!! Yum!!
Anyway we had ten Fijian dances that night, pretty much a repeat of last night; actually the bearded lady repeated word for word her spiel form last night… very funny!! “You want more….I can’t hear you” (that’s because there is only 5 of us tonight not 12)
Day 101- 14/11/09
NAVITI ISLAND – WAYA ISLAND
Saturday
When arriving at our next island, we weren’t so lucky with our free boat ride having to cough up as soon as we boarded! But when stepping onto the island, I (Rob) felt it was the best island yet, at low tide the island formed a sand bank which entered onto the other island in which you could walk across.
Greeted by the most outrageous hosts yet, Moses and Semi!! They were characters to say the least. Moses was in his 60’s and semi 50’s and the two of them were crazy. So crazy that the Lonely Planet have even mentioned them in there book, saying how great and welcoming they were. 
But when getting to our room, we knew we were going to have some interesting guests later on tonight because the netting on the windows were all torn, there was a 12inch gap, where the wall met the ceiling and there were holes every where!! 
It was like, if a blind person built it. But it didn’t take away the scenery and great hosts of the place. We meet two very very old people, around 56!!!! Ha Ha! They were taking a year out but I felt they were 30 years to late!! It was great to see at there age, getting involved in all the games and drinking!! There is still hope, Ken!!! At 9pm Semi brought me crab hunting on the beach, seeing 30 odd craps run along the beach and Semi running after them trying to pick them up was a funny sight!! He managed to catch 7, which is impressive seeing how fast they move!! After Moses and Semi entertaining us for the night, we decided to make our way back to our prison cell!!! When we opened the door 4 cockroaches scattered across the floor, around 20 flies hugged onto the light bulb and I felt there was more to come!! After killing the cockroaches and getting rid of the flies, I checked our bag of food, which mind you was wrapped in 5 plastic bags. It was torn to pieces, I didn’t know if it was a rat or a mouse because anything could have fitted through the gaps in the room. Finding mice droppings said it all, not a good feeling having a mouse go through your bags!! While cleaning it up a grasshopper flies onto Danielle, spinning in circles until it came off!! Plus when in bed with our net down, a cockroach climbed up right beside Danielle’s head. So in one night all these things happening, no wonder our night sleep was awful. Danielle had to have a shower at 3am because she was itching so much and sorta had a panic attack. We had to stay one more night here!!! Please no!!Day 102- 15/11/09
WAYA ISLAND, SUNSET BEACH
Sunday
The beach here is perfect, best beach I have ever been to… well definitely one of them! The tide was out this morning and we got to go across the sand bar, the water was so deep either side that you could dive in. That’s if you made it passed the sinking sand, if you didn’t your elegant dive turned into a bit if a side flop or a nasty looking fall!! Ha ha!!
So Rob went off fishing again with the crabs from last night, he caught one which he used for bait but then had to come in for lunch! I again spent the day enjoying the beautiful beach… and I was totally engrossed in my book at this stage… god it’s a good book, on the verge of obsession now!
That night we bumped into Oliver the loud and pompous public school boy from London, wow he was drunk….the table was lined with his 17 bottles of Fiji Bitter Beer, which made him even louder! We had seen him on the island before but he didn’t seem to stay in our resort, we found out that he had been here 3 months now and had bought a bure (the little huts we sleep in) on the other side of the island. Strange that he hasn’t travelled around, I’d go crazi on an island that never has any stock!! Anyway he fancied himself as the Gordon Ramsey type but better, so he commented on our dinner and “boney chicken bits with pumpkin and burnt potatoes” he was eventually brought home staggering, after he shouted at most of the guests and once he had raided the dorm bathroom, telling the only girl staying there that he had ‘tidied up her stuff cause it was all messy on the shelf’. So after that entertainment we stayed up with Gavin the comedian from Wales and Anna from Liverpool, Gavin very kindly shared his Bounty but with a lack of stock the guys resorted to beer being the mixer….
Well it worked because I wasn’t going to bed until I was so tired that I wouldn’t be able to hear a cockroach scuttle across the floor! But we managed to have a bird the next morning in our room!!! Amazing place but accom was terrible to say the least!!Day 103- 16/11/09
WAYA ISALND – WAYA LAI LAI ISLAND
Monday
Comedian welsh Gavin, wanted one of my (Rob) books but all he had to swap was a Harry Potter book. He really wanted it so I gave it to him but don’t think I will be reading about wizards anytime soon! We got a local taxi boat to the next island, which is cheaper and keeps the money within the local community. When we arrived I remembered I left a lot of things back at the other resort, knowing getting it back will be difficult because the Fijians are so slow and too lazy to help if it means they have to move! Harsh but true! Waya Lai Lai Resort was a lot bigger then any of the other resorts we have been to, having about 40 guests here, when all we were use to were 4 to 6 or sometimes no guests!! It didn’t have the same feeling as the other islands, due to young brits-on-tour feel, playing music up loud and shouting through the night. We heard the drum that rings when dinner is ready, on our way down seeing a big queue was so strange to see coming from what we were use to. We got talking to 2 lads from Melbourne who had the same feeling about all the other larger louts in the resort. After a few drinks with them we headed to bed. The larger louts were up till 5 am keeping more less everyone else up with them! So another rough night’s sleep!!!
Day 104- 17/11/09
WAYA LAI LAI ISLAND
Tuesday
I spent the day in that hammock until the book was finished;
OK is safe to say I’m hooked!! They even teased me with a peak at book two so now I can’t wait to get to the airport to buy the ‘New Moon’. Rob headed off with Dan to go fishing or trawling with bigger rods, but they still only caught one fish… actually only Rob caught a fish… Go Rob! They cooked it up for us that night and the 4 of us tucked into it, the envy of everyone else!!
Boat over to paradise. 
